Since the January disaster, which wiped out every building in Ruffy’s main street except the community hall and CFA headquarters, there’s been a lot of rain and, in turn, a lot of growth, even throughout the usually waning winter months.
Felicity ‘Flic’ Sloman has two roles with the CFA, one as a paid community liaison bushfire engagement facilitator and the other as the Ruffy brigade’s volunteer community safety co-ordinator.
She was also heavily involved in co-ordinating community-led recovery efforts for the area’s residents in the first three months after the fires, at the Ruffy Community Hub set up in the Ruffy Public Hall.
She is now focusing on helping people prepare for the upcoming fire season.
“Even though they might not want to hear it — and El Niño is being talked up again — we’ve got plenty of grass and a lot of people don’t have their stock back, so there’s nothing to eat it,” Ms Sloman said.
“There’s long grass and we’ve had rain.
“It’s going to die and we’ve got plenty to burn still, so we thought we needed to get the community a bit more alert to the fire risk again.”
Last month, the CFA held a facilitated discussion in Ruffy for its community.
“Sixteen people out of the whole 160 came; a lot of them were firefighters, a few of them had lost their homes,” Ms Sloman said.
“We talked about what went well for you when the fires happened, what were you happy with in terms of your planning, what went really badly, what will you do differently this coming year.
“It was a really good discussion in getting people to think ahead, because whether we like it or not, we’re still a community that’s in significant recovery and at risk.”
After getting positive community feedback, the group then hosted further discussions at Longwood East and Euroa last week, and will head to Strathbogie on October 18 for another.
“If you don’t choose to come for whatever reason ... everyone’s different and everyone’s reacted in a different way and if I knew how to get to people about the potential inevitable, we don’t know when our next fire will be,” Ms Sloman said.
With the fuel there, it’s still a possibility the area could be affected again this season.
While the hub operations have scaled back, there are still occasional workshops and information sessions at the Ruffy hall, such as a sleep workshop last week, which was aimed at helping survivors who’ve had trouble sleeping learn how to rest again.
Friday night dinners also provide a weekly social event for locals.
A month ago, a ‘Big Greek Feast’ was held at the venue with a performer on stage and a crowd seated where the makeshift community pantry had overflowed with free non-perishables for fire-affected residents in the months before.
“That was the first time the Ruffy hall was being used for what it used to be used for before the fires,” Ms Sloman said.
“It’s about getting back to what we used to do.”
26°C